


Burn It To The Ground

by RandomWordsAndStormyDays



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Nora got chewed up by the world, Nuka-World Amusement Park (Fallout), Sole Survivor Turned Raider, and Nora's humanity is nowhere to be found, lots of people are dead, mentions of suicidal ideations, so she's biting back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21770071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomWordsAndStormyDays/pseuds/RandomWordsAndStormyDays
Summary: The bombs took her perfect life. The Institute took her husband and son. Raiders took her Minutemen and her settlements. So when Nuka World takes the last thing Nora has left, she goes to seek her revenge. It's then that she realizes that she doesn't have the manpower to accomplish her mission. So she changes course.What was the old saying? If you can't beat them, join them? She embraces that idea. Now, there's not a single person who would dare take something from her.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Burn It To The Ground

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wondered what it would take for the sole survivor to go raider, so this is my take on that. I hope you enjoy.

What was the old saying? If you can’t beat them, join them?

Nora’s pretty sure that phrase was never meant to be taken so literally, but it fits so well. For months, verging on a year, she did nothing but help others. Help them build, learn to fight, taught them how to do more than just survive. And what did that get her? Nothing. Not a single fucking thing.

For a time it was good, the Minutemen were on their feet again, settlements were beginning to support themselves without her help. The request for help were few and far between. But one day it all changed.

Reports of a raider gang, more violent, aggressive, and organized than anything the Commonwealth had ever seen before, had hit Sunshine Tidings. The whole settlement of 19 people, well defended and secure, gone in an afternoon. From what she could see when she arrived, they didn’t take a single survivor, not a soul left alive. Three children dead, terror etched on their faces, forever frozen when rigor mortis set in.

Not a week later and three more settlements were gone, same M.O.: no warning, no survivors, total destruction.

Every settler that died, every child that she had to help bury, weighed on Nora, filling her soul with a heaviness that she couldn’t leave behind. She was the General of The Minutemen, and she couldn’t even protect her people from raiders. Just like she couldn’t protect her husband, or her son.

Preston tried to comfort her, shoulder some of the burden as her second in command, but she pushed him away. She knew all about his struggle with loss and survivor’s guilt, knew that some days it was still too much and he had to give his gun to someone, to keep himself safe from himself. So, instead she took off alone, hunting down leads and reports of attacks. On days when she could manage it, she’d smile, thinking about what Valentine might think of her donning the detective cap. Most days though, she couldn’t even get her lips to curl upwards, too torn down from running into dead ends.

For almost a month she searched for an answer, never finding who was actually responsible for tearing down the Army she spent so long building up. She reached out to Deacon, her old Railroad partner, but he never responded to her requests. Day one of her orientation she was told that the Railroad would not participate in any Minutemen operations. She figured that after she helped them take out the Brotherhood and the Institute that they might be willing to overlook it just this once, but she was wrong.

By the time she looped through the Commonwealth, always one step behind, there wasn’t a settlement left for her to help. All of them gone, nothing but dirt and ruin. Hancock couldn’t help her, too busy building defenses in Goodneighbor. Diamond City was locked tight, and the door wouldn’t open under any circumstances. Even the Gunners seemed to disappear, hidden away until the threat of this new raider group disappeared. Only the Super Mutants and feral ghouls still roamed the streets, and most of their hideouts had been cleared.

Some days it felt like she was the only person left alive in the world.

Finally, she returned to Sanctuary, ready to meet with what was left of her Minutemen, to start up a new plan to help rebuild the Commonwealth… again, only to find it burning to the ground. As she crested over the hill by Covenant she could see the smoke, and as she got closer she could feel the flames. Her legs carried her as fast as they could but when she arrived at the gate she was met by nothing but destruction.

Her home was destroyed once already, two centuries before by a bomb that ended the world. Still, the structures stood, giving her enough of a base to rebuild from. From what Nora could see, the raiders didn’t leave a single wall upright, nothing but ash and bodies.

The only thing still standing was a flag, one she didn’t recognize right away. It dawned a familiar logo, but it took her time to place it, and when she did she felt sick.

It was the Nuka World logo, the bright red background stood in stark contrast to the blackness at its base and Nora felt the world drop out from her. She knew about the Nuka Raiders, but passed them off. They were too far away, and from what the traders could tell her they were in a violent power struggle, three factions fighting against each other in a battle for dominance. Led by a man who was too compliant to do anything at all.

She had passed them off as no threat, even when Garvey offered to send a platoon down to investigate. The “new raiders” she had been tracking weren’t new at all, they were an old enemy that she shrugged off.

And they claimed her world from her, proving her wrong in the worst possible way.

Searching through the settlement revealed nothing but dead friends and destruction. She buried Garvey at the top of the hill, next to Nate. She didn’t love him, not the way he wanted her to, but he was her friend. Important, special. Just one more thing the world ripped away from her. The rest of the settlers, the ones she knew by name and the ones she didn’t even know existed, were piled up and burned.

Nora left Sanctuary how she found it, nothing but fiery embers and broken memories, and started her journey to the railcar she knew would take her to the heart of enemy territory. When she finally got the tram running, she was greeted by a voice. It told her that she could fight, attempt to survive, or she could die. But this wasn’t about survival, this was about revenge.

Too long she did nothing but fight for others, help them when they were hurt, pick them up off their feet when they couldn’t stand on their own. She wasn’t there to fight for the Commonwealth, she was there to put her enemies in the ground. To take on the people that hurt her. Once Nuka World was empty of raiders, she wouldn’t return home. There was nothing for her, except graves and friends who she couldn’t rely on. Nora didn’t know where she would go, out West maybe? But not there, where she could do nothing but miss her family, her friends, grieve and suffer.

When she made it through the Gauntlet the voice spoke to her once more. It informed her that since she wasn’t as weak as the others who had come before her, that she would be provided with a unique opportunity: Beat their Overboss, and becomes their new leader.

But Nora wasn’t there for a job interview, she was there to kill. And kill she did, after nearly twenty minutes of battling she took out the poor soul who dared stand between her and her goals, just like she did in the Commonwealth. One quick drag of her knife across the pale flesh of his neck, and she was the only person left alive in the old bumper car arena.

There had been silence as her victory registered to the people surrounding the rink, then thunderous shouts of anger and rage as they realized their leader was dead. That the man who killed Colter and led them to so many victories, killed by a single slash of his throat.

Looking out into the crowd, full of deadly raiders who would gut her without another thought, she had a realization. If she fought all of them now, she’d never make it out alive. Sure, she’d take a couple of them out, seriously injure a few more, but that’s not why she stalked across the Commonwealth to find their little amusement park. She came here to kill them all, tear them apart limb from limb for what they did to her people, what they did to her friends.

She couldn’t beat them, so she joins them.

Her honeyed words which swayed many a jury to rule in her client’s favors changed the jests of hatred into ones of begrudging acceptance. A man in yellow armor with an eyepatch congratulates her, lifts her wrist into the air and declares her the new leader of Nuka World, hands her a key to her new house. Then, after a few words of introduction he leads her outside to see her new kingdom.

That was five months ago.

Now, as Nora peers off the edge of the railing from the top of Fizztop Mountain, she finds that her humanity is nearly gone. Replaced instead with hatred.

For almost a year she tried to be the person she was pre-war, a follower of rules and regulations. It was her career, it was her life. And all that brought her was pain and suffering. She followed an invisible rulebook that no one else could see and when they didn’t play by the rules she fumbled, until she could do nothing but watch her world collapse.

Raiders, though? Raiders take what they want, no rules to restrict them, no regulations to bog them down. The Commonwealth took her husband and her son, took every good thing she built up and stomped it into the ground. Every person she cared about died or hurt her in some way. She exited that vault thinking she needed to save people, but now… now she realizes that she never owed anyone anything. And there isn’t a single person that would dare try and take something from Nora now, not that she has much to take.

The friends that aren’t dead, consider her to be the enemy. She had sent them all letters, promising to respect their borders. Guaranteeing that she wouldn’t send raiders to march on Goodneighbor, Diamond City, or any safehouses that she knew about.

Valentine said he was disappointed, and that he couldn’t consider her a friend anymore. Piper said the same.

Deacon asked her if she really thought she was doing what was best, offered a chance for her to come back if she rebelled against her newfound people.

Her letter to Maccready never made it, the caravan was struck down in the middle of the Mojave. She has people on the lookout for him if he ever returns.

Hancock never replied, the scout she sent to deliver her message was shot, and that was enough for her to understand his non-verbal response. His refusal to even acknowledge her anymore hurt her more than Valentine’s shunning or Deacon’s judgement ever could.

She tries not to dwell on the people from her past. Her life now belongs to the raiders shooting at cappy posters in the fountain below, to the people who would lay down their lives for her as long as she can keep them in caps and blood. Nora has no idea when her goal switched from tearing this place down to building it back up, but she’ll fight to the death to keep Nuka World on its feet. Gage has stood by her side, a confidant and a right hand man. Not that she thinks she can really trust him, but after eight successful fights against Gauntlet survivors she’s gained his respect.

Plus, under her guidance all three factions are thriving. The Pack, The Disciples, and The Operators will never be friends, will never get along if they don’t have a figurehead to keep the peace, but Nora can flawlessly navigate each of their leaders, using her skills as a lawyer the only way left.

Mason is charmed with pretty words and an iron fist, he respects the pecking order and admires her position as Alpha of the park. Mags and William Black kneel at her feet, as long as every visit ends with a few extra caps tucked away just for them. And Nisha? Nisha isn’t a problem. After Nora beat her at her own game, her body is strung up quite nicely in front of The Disciples main headquarters and Dixie will do whatever Nora demands, as long as she’s given free reign to mutilate and kill whoever the Overboss deems to be an enemy. Nora sicked her on Savoy when he found out Nisha was dead, poor man was too in love with someone who didn’t have the capacity to return his feelings. He reminded her of Preston, she’s glad he’s dead.

The Commonwealth flies under her flag now, Diamond City pays tribute, the remaining farms and settlements that were never hers, keep them in food and supplies. Goodneighbor has expanded out as far as it can go, but as many of her morals as she’s given up, Nora isn’t a liar. She has no intentions of taking it, Hancock can keep it.

The Gunners are gone, a few weeks of fighting and there isn’t a person left who has the balls to put on that uniform. Some of them joined her, most of them died.

With them gone, the Brotherhood little but a memory, and the Institute a nice crater in the ground, Nora doesn’t have many enemies, so she’s planning on expanding. She’s already got Boston, a few rebellious settlers here and there, but overall there’s no reason for her to be worried. Gage has told her that the raiders are getting restless, there’s no one left for them to attack, no blood she’ll let them bathe in.

Vermont and New Hampshire are quiet, no word of any serious opposition, so she’ll take them first. Then she’ll work West, through New York, then down. There’s some place called the Pitt in Pennsylvania, an old remnant of Pittsburg, PA. She’ll claim that too. From there the possibilities are endless. Her path is unclear, the future temporary, but her mindset is certain.

She doesn’t owe the world a damn thing. She’ll claim everything from those who defy her, or she’ll burn it all to the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked what you saw feel free to leave a comment or a kudo, they mean the world. And while you're here, check out the other works I've posted - I promise they're good.


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